Since my friend Cliff has veered us in a slight reggae direction, I thought maybe some of you might enjoy this one.....not from my collection (it's in there NOW) I found this on the Bay, listened to it yesterday and found it to be great.......what we have here is three discs of Beatles tunes, reworked by some various giants and semi giants of reggae.......somewhat "gimmicky", I suppose, but, I will tell you I enjoyed this thoroughly, actually listened to all three discs, lets see what YOU think........
OK, I wish Cliff was sitting beside me right now to feed me information, I am, admittedly, FAR from a reggae expert, but I thik I know my Beatles shit pretty well, and some of these tunes transfer in a pretty awesome manner.......btw that is how we know GREAT music, to a degree, it can be interpreted so many different ways and STILL sound great, that is what this set is about.
The programming is kind of odd, in that quite a few times the same song will appear back-to-back by different artists, in general, one version is vocal, the other a dub/instrumental, which is for emphasis as is done in standard reggae/dub........for me it works......Disc 1, for example, has back to back versions of "Yesterday" (by Joe White and by the Flame All Stars), "You Won't See Me" (by Ernest Ranglin and by Ernie Smith), and "Hey Jude" (by John Holt and by The Dynamites").......personally, I really liked the Crystalites'"Lady Madonna" and BB Seaton's "Eleanor Rigby", but PLEASE give this a shot if unfamiliar (as I was), I find it quite remarkable.
The third disc is the most "out there", so to speak, leading off with The Black Beatles "Reggae and Shout", the legendary Desmond Dekker taking on "Blackbird", and a fine "My Sweet Lord" by Freddie Notes & the Rudies whom I had never heard of until I played this track.
OK, you obviously get the idea here......if you like the Beatles OR reggae, this is gonna be fun for you, as it was for me (I happen to like both), if not, hell, I'll get some death metal or something up in the next few days for ya, capice?
DISC 1-GLEN ADAMS-I Wanna Hold Your hand/02 PAT KELLY-Hard Days Night/03 BYRON LEE & THE DRAGONIARES-And I Love Her/04 THE NOW GENERATION-You Never Know (I'll Be Back)/05 JOE WHITE-Yesterday/06 THE FLAME ALL STARS-Yesterday (Instrumental)/07 WILLIE LINDO-Norwegian Wood/08 ERNEST RANGLIN-You Won't See Me (instrumental)/09 ERNIE SMITH -You Won't See Me/10 JOE WHITE-If I Needed Somebody/11 BB SEATON-Eleanor Rigby/12 DON CARLOS-Hello Goodbye/13 THE CRYSTALITES-Lady Madonna/14 JOHN HOLT-Hey Jude/15 THE DYNAMITES-Hey jude (Instrumental)/16 KEN LAZARUS-Ob-La-Di-Ob-La-Da/17 THE PARAGONS/ROSALYN SWEAT-Blackbird
DISC 03-01 THE BLACK BEATLES-Reggae and Shout/02 ALTON ELLIS-And I Love Her/03 DANDY LIVINGSTONE-Yesterday/04 JACKIE ROBINSON- In My Life/05 THE PIONEER ALL STARS-In My Life/06 RICO RODRIGUEZ/THE RUDIES-Hey Jude/07 JOYCE BOND-Ob-La-Di-Ob-La-Da/08 DESMOND DEKKER-Blackbird/ 09 THE ISREALITES- Come Together/10 SUSAN CADOGAN-Something-11 DAWN PENN-Here Comes the Sun/12 NICKY THOMAS-Isn't It a Pity!/13 FREDDIE NOTES & THE RUDIES-My Sweet Lord/14 TT ROSS-Imagine/15 DEL DAVIS-A World Without Love/16 THE JOHNNY ARTHEY ORCHESTRA- A World Without Love
